ZTE case being banned by US government and YouTube Vlogger Logan Paul being ruled by YouTube are two real-life sample on what are things can happen to any of us, who rely ourselves on a single source of income, single skill set, single platform, single source, single technology, single whatever single.

Lesson you should learned as both Individual (employee or entrepreneur) and company, so you won’t be the next ZTE or Logan Paul.

While US President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping are trying to reverse the ZTE case – over court ruling stating any US companies couldn’t sell anything to the Chinese phone maker ZTE due to ZTE negligence, there are things that we can learn from the situation – not only as a company, but as single individual who rely ourselves on a single source of income.

ZTE Tower in Shenzhen. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org

Lessons Learned from ZTE and YouTube Vlogger Logan Paul

1. Obey and adhere the rules.

Like games, different games have different rules. So do authorities, countries, states, companies and platforms. Different authorities/countries/states/companies/platforms have their own sets of rules you have to obey if you are in / inside / be part of them.

2. Don’t mess with Government and Authorities.

Simply because they have the rights and power.

On ZTE case, they intentionally told lies to US Government. While on Logan Paul’s case, he kept posting video(s) that had been warned as something not allowed on the platform.

3. Always have plan B.

Find and plan backup in case things go South.

Always have plan B in case your main plan go into wrong way

All ZTE Smartphone is using US Qualcomm chipset, unlike Samsung which use both Qualcomm and its in-house Exynos chipset. ZTE in this case, doesn’t have plan B except for appealing to US Government, while if the same thing happen to Samsung, they can still make money selling smartphone with its own in-house chipset.

As a company which like start doing business, getting big and known to the masses is priority #1. you can start finding one source, one technology, one platform, but once the company grows, start finding replacement and/or alternatives for anything that you have/use/consume.

Good example here is Apple, as a company they use different chipset for one same smartphone, they source different display from different sources.

Another good example is Ørsted (formerly known as DONG Energy) which is an oil company based in Denmark. Apart from selling now-turning-obsolete oil, they have started and now have shifted to sell wind energy. The moment the whole world shifted away from oil, Ørsted will still be here and won’t get wipe out – simply because they don’t rely on single source of income.

As individual who seeks jobs/being entrepreneur, as a start you can master one skill set, one technology, but don’t get caught too long on this one skill set and technology. Keep improving yourself by taking courses, learn something new regardless of your age and gender.

5. Have and think long term strategy.

Plan your route to the Future

On ZTE case, they simply don’t think long enough on possibilities of getting banned by US government selling equipment to restricted countries. If they had thought the consequences back then, they wouldn’t dare to sell it to restricted countries, given their condition which rely on single source.

You too, as individual, have to have and think about your long term strategy, because whatever moves you do today, it will impact your long term strategy and future.

6. Try to be independent. Build in-house.

Try to supplement your own parts, technology, platform make the company and yourself to be less dependent as much as possible, especially if you have enough power, resources and money to do it. Don’t rely too much to something/someone else.

Why company should think and start follow Apple’s way of doing things. Apple is far from perfect and there are plus and minus of going the Apple’s way of doing things, but on the positive side, I can say nobody or no organization can threatened Apple, the way other organizations able to threat a company. Apple design its own chipset to be used on its smartphones, if Samsung or Intel or whichever else stop making chipset for Apple, Apple can just easily ask other manufacturers to build the chipset based on its design. Apple also design and create its own OS (iOS and Mac OS) – Apple is the sole authority on everything related to the OSes. Even today for disassembling, Apple built its own disassembling plant.

Like me, I built my blog on my own website. I can post anything I like to post, without getting banned simply because I owned the platform and I am my own authority.

7. Start now.

The troubling company: ZTE and lessons we can learn from it. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org

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